Controlling Yemen Is Just Part of Obama's Power Game with Chinahttp://www.alternet.org/story/145072/?page=entire
The stepped-up presence in Yemen is the latest move in an increasingly cozy three-way US-Israel-India alliance that is the emphatic counter to China's surge.
January 11, 2010 |

A year ago, Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh made the startling revelation that his country's security forces apprehended a group of Islamists linked to the Israeli intelligence forces. "A terrorist cell was apprehended and will be referred to the courts for its links with the Israeli intelligence services," he promised.

Saleh added, "You will hear about the trial proceedings." Nothing was ever heard and the trail went cold. Welcome to the magical land of Yemen, where in the womb of time the Arabian Nights were played out.

Combine Yemen with the mystique of Islam, Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the Israeli intelligence and you get a heady mix. The head of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, dropped in at the capital, Sana'a, on Saturday and vowed to Saleh increased American aid to fight al-Qaeda. United States President Barack Obama promptly echoed Petraeus' promise, assuring that the US would step up intelligence-sharing and training of Yemeni forces and perhaps carry out joint attacks against militants in the region.

Another Afghanistan?
Many accounts say that Obama, who is widely regarded as a gifted and intelligent politician, is blundering into a catastrophic mistake by starting another war that could turn out to be as bloody and chaotic and unwinnable as Iraq and Afghanistan. Yes, on the face of it, Obama does seem erratic. The parallels with Afghanistan are striking. There has been an attempt to destroy a US plane by a Nigerian student who says he received training in Yemen. And America wants to go to war.

Yemen, too, is a land of wonderfully beautiful rugged mountains that could be a guerilla paradise. Yemenis are a hospitable lot, like Afghan tribesmen, but as Irish journalist Patrick Cockurn recollects, while they are generous to passing strangers, they "deem the laws of hospitality to lapse when the stranger leaves their tribal territory, at which time he becomes 'a good back to shoot at'." Surely, there is romance in the air - almost like in the Hindu Kush. Fiercely nationalistic, almost every Yemeni has a gun. Yemen is also, like Afghanistan, a land of conflicting authorities, and with foreign intervention, a little civil war is waiting to flare up.

Is Obama so incredibly forgetful of his own December 1 speech outlining his Afghan strategy that he violated his own canons? Certainly not. Obama is a smart man. The intervention in Yemen will go down as one of the smartest moves that he ever made for perpetuating the US's global hegemony. It is America's answer to China's surge.

A cursory look at the map of region will show that Yemen is one of the most strategic lands adjoining waters of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula. It flanks Saudi Arabia and Oman, which are vital American protectorates. In effect, Uncle Sam is "marking territory" - like a dog on a lamppost. Russia has been toying with the idea of reopening its Soviet-era base in Aden. Well, the US has pipped Moscow in the race.

The US has signaled that the odyssey doesn't end with Yemen. It is also moving into Somalia and Kenya. With that, the US establishes its military presence in an entire unbroken stretch of real estate all along the Indian Ocean's western rim. Chinese officials have of late spoken of their need to establish a naval base in the region. The US has now foreclosed China's options. The only country with a coastline that is available for China to set up a naval base in the region will be Iran. All other countries have a Western military presence.

The American intervention in Yemen is not going to be on the pattern of Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama will ensure he doesn't receive any body bags of American servicemen serving in Yemen. That is what the American public expects from him. He will only deploy drone aircraft and special forces and "focus on providing intelligence and training to help Yemen counter al-Qaeda militants", according to the US military. Obama's main core objective will be to establish an enduring military presence in Yemen. This serves many purposes.

A new great game begins
First, the US move has to be viewed against the historic backdrop of the Shi'ite awakening in the region. The Shi'ites (mostly of the Zaidi group) have been traditionally suppressed in Yemen. Shi'ite uprisings have been a recurring theme in Yemen's history. There has been a deliberate attempt to minimize the percentage of Shi'ites in Yemen, but they could be anywhere up to 45%.

More importantly, in the northern part of the country, they constitute the majority. What bothers the US and moderate Sunni Arab states - and Israel - is that the Believing Youth Organization led by Hussein Badr al-Houthi, which is entrenched in northern Yemen, is modeled after Hezbollah in Lebanon in all respects - politically, economically, socially and culturally.

Yemenis are an intelligent people and are famous in the Arabian Peninsula for their democratic temperament. The Yemeni Shi'ite empowerment on a Hezbollah-model would have far-reaching regional implications. Next-door Oman, which is a key American base, is predominantly Shi'ite. Even more sensitive is the likelihood of the dangerous idea of Shi'ite empowerment spreading to Saudi Arabia's highly restive Shi'ite regions adjoining Yemen, which on top of it all, also happen to be the reservoir of the country's fabulous oil wealth.

Saudi Arabia is entering a highly sensitive phase of political transition as a new generation is set to take over the leadership in Riyadh, and the palace intrigues and fault lines within the royal family are likely to get exacerbated. To put it mildly, given the vast scale of institutionalized Shi'ite persecution in Saudi Arabia by the Wahhabi establishment, Shi'ite empowerment is a veritable minefield that Riyadh is petrified about at this juncture. Its threshold of patience is wearing thin, as the recent uncharacteristic resort to military power against the north Yemeni Shi'ite communities bordering Saudi Arabia testifies.

The US faces a classic dilemma. It is all right for Obama to highlight the need of reform in Muslim societies - as he did eloquently in his Cairo speech last June. But democratization in the Yemeni context - ironically, in the Arab context - would involve Shi'ite empowerment. After the searing experience in Iraq, Washington is literally perched like a cat on a hot tin roof. It would much rather be aligned with the repressive, autocratic government of Saleh than let the genie of reform out of the bottle in the oil rich-region in which it has profound interests.

Obama has an erudite mind and he is not unaware that what Yemen desperately needs is reform, but he simply doesn't want to think about it. The paradox he faces is that with all its imperfections, Iran happens to be the only "democratic" system operating in that entire region.

Iran's shadow over the Yemeni Shi'ite consciousness worries the US to no end. Simply put, in the ideological struggle going on in the region, Obama finds himself with the ultra-conservative and brutally autocratic oligarchies that constitute the ruling class in the region. Conceivably, he isn't finding it easy. If his own memoirs are to be believed, there could be times when the vague recollections of his childhood in Indonesia and his precious memories of his own mother, who from all accounts was a free-wheeling intellectual and humanist, must be stalking him in the White House corridors.

Israel moves in
But Obama is first and foremost a realist. Emotions and personal beliefs drain away and strategic considerations weigh uppermost when he works in the Oval Office. With the military presence in Yemen, the US has tightened the cordon around Iran. In the event of a military attack on Iran, Yemen could be put to use as a springboard by the Israelis. These are weighty considerations for Obama.

The fact is that no one is in control as a Yemeni authority. It is a cakewalk for the formidable Israeli intelligence to carve out a niche in Yemen - just as it did in northern Iraq under somewhat comparable circumstances.

Islamism doesn't deter Israel at all. Saleh couldn't have been far off the mark when he alleged last year that Israeli intelligence had been exposed as having kept links with Yemeni Islamists. The point is, Yemeni Islamists are a highly fragmented lot and no one is sure who owes what sort of allegiance to whom. Israeli intelligence operates marvelously in such twilight zones when the horizon is lacerated with the blood of the vanishing sun.

Israel will find a toehold in Yemen to be a god-sent gift insofar as it registers its presence in the Arabian Peninsula. This is a dream come true for Israel, whose effectiveness as a regional power has always been seriously handicapped by its lack of access to the Persian Gulf region. The overarching US military presence helps Islamism doesn't deter Israel at all. Saleh couldn't have been far off the mark when he alleged last year that Israeli intelligence had been exposed as having kept links with Yemeni Islamists. The point is, Yemeni Islamists are a highly fragmented lot and no one is sure who owes what sort of allegiance to whom. Israeli intelligence operates marvelously in such twilight zones when the horizon is lacerated with the blood of the vanishing sun.

Israel will find a toehold in Yemen to be a god-sent gift insofar as it registers its presence in the Arabian Peninsula. This is a dream come true for Israel, whose effectiveness as a regional power has always been seriously handicapped by its lack of access to the Persian Gulf region. The overarching US military presence helps Israel politically to consolidate its Yemeni chapter. Without doubt, Petraeus is moving on Yemen in tandem with Israel (and Britain). But the "pro-West" Arab states with their rentier mentality have no choice except to remain as mute spectators on the sidelines.

Some among them may actually acquiesce with the Israeli security presence in the region as a safer bet than the spread of the dangerous ideas of Shi'ite empowerment emanating out of Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah. Also, at some stage, Israeli intelligence will begin to infiltrate the extremist Sunni outfits in Yemen, which are commonly known as affiliates of al-Qaeda. That is, if it hasn't done that already. Any such link makes Israel an invaluable ally for the US in its fight against al-Qaeda. In sum, infinite possibilities exist in the paradigm that is taking shape in the Muslim world abutting into the strategic Persian Gulf.

It's all about China
Most important, however, for US global strategies will be the massive gain of control of the port of Aden in Yemen. Britain can vouchsafe that Aden is the gateway to Asia. Control of Aden and the Malacca Strait will put the US in an unassailable position in the "great game" of the Indian Ocean. The sea lanes of the Indian Ocean are literally the jugular veins of China's economy. By controlling them, Washington sends a strong message to Beijing that any notions by the latter that the US is a declining power in Asia would be nothing more than an extravagant indulgence in fantasy.

In the Indian Ocean region, China is increasingly coming under pressure. India is a natural ally of the US in the Indian Ocean region. Both disfavor any significant Chinese naval presence. India is mediating a rapprochement between Washington and Colombo that would help roll back Chinese influence in Sri Lanka. The US has taken a u-turn in its Myanmar policy and is engaging the regime there with the primary intent of eroding China's influence with the military rulers. The Chinese strategy aimed at strengthening influence in Sri Lanka and Myanmar so as to open a new transportation route towards the Middle East, the Persian Gulf and Africa, where it has begun contesting traditional Western economic dominance.

China is keen to whittle down its dependence on the Malacca Strait for its commerce with Europe and West Asia. The US, on the contrary, is determined that China remains vulnerable to the choke point between Indonesia and Malaysia.

An engrossing struggle is breaking out. The US is unhappy with China's efforts to reach the warm waters of the Persian Gulf through the Central Asian region and Pakistan. Slowly but steadily, Washington is tightening the noose around the neck of the Pakistani elites - civilian and military - and forcing them to make a strategic choice between the US and China. This will put those elites in an unenviable dilemma. Like their Indian counterparts, they are inherently "pro-Western" (even when they are "anti-American") and if the Chinese connection is important for Islamabad, that is primarily because it balances perceived Indian hegemony.

The existential questions with which the Pakistani elites are grappling are apparent. They are seeking answers from Obama. Can Obama maintain a balanced relationship vis-a-vis Pakistan and India? Or, will Obama lapse back to the George W Bush era strategy of building up India as the pre-eminent power in the Indian Ocean under whose shadow Pakistan will have to learn to live?

US-India-Israel axis
On the other hand, the Indian elites are in no compromising mood. Delhi was on a roll during the Bush days. Now, after the initial misgivings about Obama's political philosophy, Delhi is concluding that he is all but a clone of his illustrious predecessor as regards the broad contours of the US's global strategy - of which containment of China is a core template.

The comfort level is palpably rising in Delhi with regard to the Obama presidency. Delhi takes the surge of the Israeli lobby in Washington as the litmus test for the Obama presidency. The surge suits Delhi, since the Jewish lobby was always a helpful ally in cultivating influence in the US Congress, media and the rabble-rousing think-tankers as well as successive administrations. And all this is happening at a time when the India-Israel security relationship is gaining greater momentum.

United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates is due to visit Delhi in the coming days. The Obama administration is reportedly adopting an increasingly accommodative attitude toward India's longstanding quest for "dual-use" technology from the US. If so, a massive avenue of military cooperation is about to open between the two countries, which will make India a serious challenger to China's growing military prowess. It is a win-win situation as the great Indian arms bazaar offers highly lucrative business for American companies.

Clearly, a cozy three-way US-Israel-India alliance provides the underpinning for all the maneuvering that is going on. It will have significance for the security of the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula. Last year, India formalized a naval presence in Oman.

All-in-all, terrorism experts are counting the trees and missing the wood when they analyze the US foray into Yemen in the limited terms of hunting down al-Qaeda. The hard reality is that Obama, whose main plank used to be "change", has careened away and increasingly defaults to the global strategies of the Bush era. The freshness of the Obama magic is dissipating. Traces of the "revisionism" in his foreign policy orientation are beginning to surface. We can see them already with regard to Iran, Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Israel-Palestine problem, Central Asia and towards China and Russia.

Arguably, this sort of "return of the native" by Obama was inevitable. For one thing, he is but a creature of his circumstances. As someone put it brilliantly, Obama's presidency is like driving a train rather than a car: a train cannot be "steered", the driver can at best set its speed, but ultimately, it must run on its tracks.

Besides, history has no instances of a declining world power meekly accepting its destiny and walking into the sunset. The US cannot give up on its global dominance without putting up a real fight. And the reality of all such momentous struggles is that they cannot be fought piece-meal. You cannot fight China without occupying Yemen.

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey._________________'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'

“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”

The Gulf Cooperation Council's power-transfer plan for Yemen is expected to be signed on Sunday in the Saudi capital Riyadh. The plan provides the framework for Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down as president within a month.

Yemen's government has insisted that the Gulf-mediated deal aimed at ending the political standoff must go ahead. But opposition groups are warning that government-led violence against protesters demanding Saleh's immediate resignation could derail the agreement.

He said, "We insist that the same delegation that travelled to Abu Dhabi will travel to Riyadh, and will sign the Gulf initiative. The final clause, if necessary, will be adopted by Ali Abdullah Saleh as president of the General People's Congress, and not as the President of Yemen, because the agreement is a deal between the parties and political organizations."

(Reuters) - Yemen may have little chance of averting a tribal civil war as heavy fighting spreads in the capital unless President Ali Abdullah Saleh quickly resigns.

But Saleh, a stubborn political survivor, has likely already decided to fight to keep power in the strategic state where Gulf and Western allies are concerned that anarchy could give the strong Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda more room to operate.

Saudi Arabia, fearing instability in a neighbor located on a shipping lane through which 3 million barrels of oil pass daily, may decide to press Saleh harder to leave. But this is unlikely to be enough, barring a coup or military intervention.

"It seems that we have crossed a rubicon here," Dubai-based security analyst Theodore Karasik said, adding that the chances for a democratic or peaceful transition of power were now slim.

"It is going to look like Libya, and now it is becoming ... like Libya. And I think that is important for the international community to recognize."

Fighting between heavily armed Saleh loyalists and opposition groups has killed scores of Yemenis since it erupted in Sanaa on Monday, a day after Saleh refused for the third time to sign a pact mediated by Gulf neighbors that would have ended his 33-year tenure in the fractious country within a month.

Absent from these street battles are the tens of thousands of protesters who continue holding peaceful daily rallies demanding Saleh's ouster and a transition to a democracy. It is unclear how they will respond to the escalating violence.

The clashes in the sandbagged streets surrounding the Sanaa mansion of tribal leader Sadiq al-Ahmar are the most sustained yet since youth-led protesters set up tent camps in cities across Yemen in February to heap pressure on Saleh to bow out.

Tribal allegiances are the most powerful element of Yemen's volatile social fabric and the fighting already appears to be playing out along tribal lines. Ahmar, head of the Hashed tribal federation to which Saleh's Sanhan tribe also belongs, called on all Yemeni tribes to back him against the president.

"He will leave this country barefoot," Ahmar said of the man who has maintained authoritarian rule over Yemen for 33 years.

Saleh also ramped up his rhetoric, accusing Ahmar and his brothers -- sons of a tribal patriarch who had been his ally -- of trying to drag Yemen into open war, saying they had "made the wrong decision" in confronting the state.

A key army commander who has backed protesters inspired by revolts that toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia called on the military to defy Saleh. General Ali Mohsen called the president a "madman who is thirsty for more bloodshed."

"It's not yet a civil war. If this can be contained in a couple of days then things will be fine. If things are not fine, things will escalate into a civil war," Yemeni political analyst Abdul-Ghani al-Iryani said.

"If (General) Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar comes into the fray, the entire military will get involved... It will be an all-out war."

SAUDI PRESSURE

In a sign that ordinary civilians were expecting the worst, Yemenis streamed out of the capital, bags strapped to the roofs of their cars. Fighting erupted near the airport, and tribal gunmen loyal to Ahmar seized control of several ministries.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, which spearheaded mediation efforts, suspended its initiative after the head of the six-nation bloc was trapped for hours in the United Arab Emirates embassy on Sunday by pro-Saleh gunmen intent on scuttling the deal. The president later refused to sign.

Yemen's Western and Gulf allies, fearing a failed state on the doorstep of the world's top oil exporter, desperately want to see a peaceful transition of power and increasingly see Saleh as a liability as his domestic supporters desert him.

The United States, which has leaned on Saleh in its fight against al Qaeda, and France stepped up their calls on Thursday for Saleh to go, blaming the increased bloodshed on his backpedalling from the transition accord.

Saudi Arabia, which also has longstanding and strong ties with Yemeni tribes, is likely to try to apply another round of pressure on Saleh to step aside to avert disaster in a country where half of the 23 million people own a gun.

"The only thing Saudi Arabia has left is to throw its psychological or moral support or for someone to come out and openly ask him to leave," said prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, adding that such a request could ask him to step aside "in the name of Islam, friendship and Arabism."

Saudi Arabia is in a tough position. It wants to discourage revolts in the Arabian Peninsula that have also hit Bahrain and Oman and it fears could eventually spread to its own territory. But it doesn't want its own security threatened by instability that it believes could erupt if the Yemeni standoff festers.

Most analysts agreed Saudi pressure would not extend to military intervention, although there is a precedent for such action. Riyadh was drawn into Yemen's civil war with northern Shi'ite rebels in 2009, when it sided with the government.

Saudi Arabia sent troops to Bahrain in March to help the fellow Sunni Muslim monarchy suppress mostly Shi'ite protesters.

Karasik suggested Riyadh could step in at the request of Yemeni tribes with whom it has longstanding ties, although there was no sign this was currently on the table. Others said the Saudis might refer the matter to the Arab League, although that would be unlikely to result in binding action.

Yemeni capital, Sana'a was shaken by powerful explosions on Tuesday.Several people were also killed during clashes between opposition fighters loyal to Shiek Sadiq Al-Ahmar and government forces.Mortar shells, RBGs and other heavy military weapons were used during the clashes, which erupted once again after five days of fragile ceasefire.

Press TV's Mohammed al-Attab reports from Sana'a

_________________'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'

“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”

Reuters – Military police secure the Ministry of Trade and Industry building after recent clashes between police …
Play VideoBarack Obama Video:Unease with 'Obamacare's' Mandate FOX News
Play VideoBarack Obama Video:Obama leads Republican rivals in Presidential poll Reuters
Play VideoBarack Obama Video:Obama Focuses On Economy CBS4 Miami
– Wed Jun 8, 11:12 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration has intensified air strikes on suspected militants in Yemen in a bid to keep them from consolidating power as the government in Sanaa teeters, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
A U.S. official confirmed to Reuters that a U.S. strike last Friday killed Abu Ali al-Harithi, a midlevel al Qaeda operative, which followed last month's attempted strike against Anwar al-Awlaki, the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Citing U.S. officials, the Times said a U.S. campaign using armed drones and fighter jets had accelerated in recent weeks as U.S. officials see the strikes as one of the few options to contain al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
With the country in violent conflict, Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to Sanaa, the newspaper said.
Yemen's authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was wounded on Friday and is being treated in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. He appears to have been wounded by a bombing at a mosque inside his palace, not a rocket attack as first thought, U.S. and Arab officials told Reuters.
[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]

There were conflicting reports about his condition -- ranging from fairly minor, to life-threatening 40 percent burns.
There had been nearly a yearlong pause in U.S. airstrikes after concerns that poor intelligence had resulted in civilian deaths that undercut goals of the secret campaign.
U.S. and Saudi spy services have been receiving more information from electronic eavesdropping and informants about possible locations of militants, the newspaper said, citing officials in Washington. But there were concerns that with the wider conflict in Yemen, factions might feed information to trigger air strikes against rival groups.
The operations were further complicated by al Qaeda operatives' mingling with other rebel and anti-government militants, the newspaper said, citing a senior Pentagon official.
The U.S. ambassador in Yemen met recently with opposition leaders, partly to make the case for continuing operations in case Saleh's government falls, the newspaper said.
Opposition leaders have told the ambassador that operations against al Qaeda in Yemen should continue regardless of who wins the power struggle in the capital, the Times said, citing officials in Washington.
Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen has been linked to the attempt to blow up a transatlantic jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 and a plot last year to blow up cargo planes with bombs hidden in printer cartridges.
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Writing by Vicki Allen; Editing by Peter Cooney)_________________'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'

“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”

Uploaded by RussiaToday on 16 Jun 2011
The West is weighing in to Yemen's ongoing unrest - with deadly force. Officials in the troubled country say U.S. drone strikes have killed over a hundred people, including civilians, in the past two weeks. Now, the UK's preparing attack helicopters and commando squads for possible action in Yemen.

_________________'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'

“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”

View Photo Gallery — Anwar al-Aulaqi, a radical cleric and one of the most influential al-Qaeda operatives wanted by the U.S., was killed Friday in an airstrike in northern Yemen, authorities said.

By Peter Finn, Published: September 30

The Justice Department wrote a secret memorandum authorizing the lethal targeting of Anwar al-Aulaqi, the American-born radical cleric who was killed by a U.S. drone strike Friday, according to administration officials.

The document was produced following a review of the legal issues raised by striking a U.S. citizen and involved senior lawyers from across the administration. There was no dissent about the legality of killing Aulaqi, the officials said.

The Washington Post's Africa bureau chief, Sudarsan Raghavan, reports from Yemen about what Anwar al-Aulaqi's death means for the Yemens and for the long-term U.S.-Yemen relationship. (Audio)
More On This Story

“What constitutes due process in this case is a due process in war,” said one of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss closely held deliberations within the administration.

The administration has faced a legal challenge and public criticism for targeting Aulaqi, who was born in New Mexico, because of constitutional protections afforded U.S. citizens. The memorandum may represent an attempt to resolve, at least internally, a legal debate over whether a president can order the killing of U.S. citizens overseas as a counterterrorism measure.

The operation to kill Aulaqi involved CIA and military assets under CIA control. A former senior intelligence official said that the CIA would not have killed an American without such a written opinion.

A second American killed in Friday’s attack was Samir Khan, a driving force behind Inspire, the English-language magazine produced by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. An administration official said the CIA did not know Khan was with Aulaqi, but they also considered Khan a belligerent whose presence near the target would not have stopped the attack.

The circumstances of Khan’s death were reminiscent of a 2002 U.S. drone strike in Yemen that targeted Abu Ali al-Harithi, a Yemeni al-Qaeda operative accused of planning the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. That strike also killed a U.S. citizen who the CIA knew was in Harithi’s vehicle but who was a target of the attack.

The Obama administration has spoken in broad terms about its authority to use military and paramilitary force against al-Qaeda and associated forces beyond “hot,” or traditional, battlefields such as Iraq or Afghanistan. Officials said that certain belligerents aren’t shielded because of their citizenship.

“As a general matter, it would be entirely lawful for the United States to target high-level leaders of enemy forces, regardless of their nationality, who are plotting to kill Americans both under the authority provided by Congress in its use of military force in the armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces as well as established international law that recognizes our right of self-defense,” an administration official said in a statement Friday.

President Obama and various administration officials referred to Aulaqi publicly for the first time Friday as the “external operations” chief for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a label that may be intended to underscore his status as an operational leader who posed an imminent threat.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The administration officials refused to disclose the exact legal analysis used to authorize targeting Aulaqi, or how they considered any Fifth Amendment right to due process.

The United States has confirmed the killing of the radical Yemeni-American cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, in northern Yemen. The Obama administration says Al-Awlaki is one of the most influential al-Qaeda operatives on its 'most wanted' list. In response to news of al-Awlaki’s death, constitutional scholar Glenn Greenwald and others argue the assassination of U.S. citizens without due process has now has become a reality. "One of the bizarre aspects of it is that media and government reports try to sell al-Awlaki as some grand terrorist mastermind … describing him as the new bin Laden. The United States government needs a terrorist mastermind to replace Osama bin Laden to justify this type of endless war … For a while, al-Awlaki was going to serve that function," Greenwald says. "If you are somebody that believes the President of the United States has the power to order your fellow citizens murdered, assassinated, killed without a shred of due process … then you are really declaring yourself to be as pure of an authoritarian as it gets." [Includes rush transcript]

_________________'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'

“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”

It is hardly surprising that President Obama ordered the assassinations of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki since the last thing he wants is to bring any leader of al-Qaeda to trial. If the U.S. wanted bin Laden to have his day in court it might have had the Navy Seals go against his lightly defended hideout with stun grenades or tear gas instead of launching a shoot-to-kill attack.

As The New Yorker article "Getting bin Laden" of August 8 by reporter Nicholas Schmidle makes clear, the bin Laden slaying was a shoot-and-kill operation from the get-go and "all along, the SEALs had planned to dump bin Laden's corpse into the sea." Schmidle writes that when the SEALs came upon Obama in his three-story compound in Abbottabad that he was unarmed and that those guarding him had already been killed. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to capture him and put him on trial. Instead, by having the SEALs execute him, Obama made good on his 2008 campaign pledge, "We will kill bin Laden" and spared the American public the story of how the U.S. created al-Qaeda in the first place and why and how the terrorist band turned against Washington.

Reporter Schmidle writes the bin Laden slaying was a CIA covert operation, so it was a natural fit for the President. For years a CIA employee, Obama shares the Agency's criminal outlook, which has long been the expropriation of the energy resources of the Middle East. To further this goal, Obama vastly increased the number of drone assassination terror strikes by the CIA over those ordered by his predecessor George W. Bush, and this escalation has also led, reliable sources inform us, to the killing of hundreds of innocent civilians---a figure that now may well number a thousand or more. I underscore: innocent civilians. Ask yourself, how any civilized man can purchase the destruction of an accused enemy at the price of the murders of so many innocent bystanders, including women and children?

And why no trials? Well, it is hard to think of any aggressor in history who sought to put his foreign captives on trial. As a rule, invaders don't do that. The U.S. surely hasn't done this in the Middle East. Of the thousands of "terrorist" captives (and I put the term in quotes because in my book a man is still innocent until proved guilty in court) arrested and held for years in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and other hell holes, how many have been put on trial? How many have had lawyers? How many have had anything resembling due process? How many have been allowed to contact their families? The late entertainer Michael Jackson's physician currently is on trial in a procedure exposed on nation-wide television---but which captive of the Pentagon allegedly guilty of the grave crime of seeking to destroy America by force and violence has been afforded a like opportunity to defend himself in a public trial?

If there was the slightest shred of justice in the CIA's renditions, it has been obliterated by the burdens the U.S. has heaped on the several lawyers allowed to represent a handful of the accused, making it difficult for them to visit their clients, to speak to their clients, and to represent them fairly. Worse, the Pentagon has dressed military personnel in civilian suits and sent them to tell captives they are their court-appointed lawyers and can speak to them freely when, in fact, they are spies! And nothing points to American culpability so much as the widespread torture of captives. When, in the annals of human history, has a nation using such foul methods ever been in the right? When has any nation that closets men in secret prisons to deny access to them by the International Red Cross not had something ghastly to hide? When, in all of human history, has any nation that ever outspent all the other nations on the planet combined on armaments not been an aggressor state?

Let's be clear about this: the nation that arrests suspects without first going before a judge to make its case is no respecter of human rights. Just the opposite. Its violation of international law is precisely what it accuses those it arrests of doing. Al-Awlaki's slaying by the U.S. "is a real body blow against the United States Constitution by the Obama administration---the murder and assassination of a U.S. citizen in gross violation of the Fifth Amendment," says Francis Boyle, the distinguished authority on international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign. This states: "No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law."

Instead, Boyle says, this was a "Mafia-style 'hit'" on a U.S. citizen authorized by President Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School and former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago whose action "proves how degraded and bankrupt legal education at such elite institutions has become." Harvard's moral bankruptcy, though, is the least of it.

The killing of al-Awlaki is no cause for rejoicing by the American people. Not only has President Obama once again authorized a murder but by denying al-Awlaki any chance of a fair trial Obama cheats the American people of their right to hear what the defendant has to say. One of the great blessings of trial by jury enshrined in centuries of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence is its educational aspect. There is not only sworn testimony presented by the involved parties but the opportunity to examine and cross-examine witnesses and to get at the motives for their conduct and to determine the truth of their positions. There is the opportunity to hear opening and closing arguments by both the defendant and the prosecution and to evaluate them calmly and weigh them one against the other. In the present situation, the prosecution is trying al-Awlaki, like bin Laden before him, in the compliant media of the American Warfare State.

Boyle charges that as the CIA originally established Al Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan, "they are aware of all the dirty work we have been involved in around the world since about 1980 that we have had them doing, most recently in Libya. Hence, they all get Kangaroo Courts on Gitmo that are under the complete control of the Pentagon to silence and control whatever they have to say as well as their lawyers." In short, bin Laden and al-Awlaki knew too much.

SANAA | Tue Oct 18, 2011 4:26pm EDT
(Reuters) - Two relatives of an assassinated U.S.-born militant cleric who were killed in an air strike last week in southern Yemen were teenagers out for dinner with friends when they were hit, their family said in a statement on Tuesday.

Yemeni officials said on Saturday about 24 people, including a son and a brother of Anwar al-Awlaki, were killed in an air strike on an al Qaeda hideout near the town of Azzan in the southern Shabwa province.

"Abdel-Rahman Anwar al-Awlaki was born in the U.S. city of Denver, Colorado on 26, August 1995, and thus he is not 21 or 27-years-old, but just 16," the statement said.

It added the second member of the Awlaki family killed was Ahmed Abdel-Rahman al-Awlaki, 17.

It said Abdel-Rahman, who had been living in the Yemeni capital Sanaa since he returned from the United States in 2002, had gone to look for his father nearly a week before the cleric was killed on September 30.

"He left his mother a letter saying he was traveling to Shabwa to look for his father in Shabwa, his ancestral home," the statement said.

Abdel-Rahman stayed in Shabwa for two weeks after his father's death, when the family asked him to return home.

"But God wanted otherwise. On the night of October 14, he left with some friends for dinner under the moon light when an American missile landed, killing Abdel-Rahman and his friends, including our relative Ahmed Abdel-Rahman al-Awlaki, 17," it added.

Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric linked to al Qaeda, was killed by a CIA drone along with several of his comrades. Eloquent in English and Arabic, he encouraged attacks on the United States and was seen as a man who could draw in more al Qaeda recruits from Western countries.

Awlaki was implicated in a botched attempt by al Qaeda's Arabian Peninsula wing (AQAP) to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in 2009 and had contacts with an American army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at a U.S. military base the same year.

Jacob Paul "Jake" Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American print and television journalist, currently the senior White House correspondent for ABC News in Washington, D.C.
...He was the Washington correspondent for Salon.com from 1999 to 2002, where he was an early questioner of the Bush administration's claims about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction.[7]
...
He is the author of the books Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency on the 2000 Presidential election and Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story.

...The site ranks all TV-based journalists in America by influence. Tapper ranks, as of December 2010, at number one.[8]

Tapper was considered one of the leading candidates to replace George Stephanopoulos as anchor of This Week. Stephanopoulos took over for Diane Sawyer, co-host of Good Morning America, when she assumed the role as anchor of World News.[9] However, CNN's Christiane Amanpour was selected instead. Tapper served as the interim anchor until Amanpour took over the show on August 1, 2010.[10]

American and British diplomatic staff have been withdrawn from Yemen amid warnings of an imminent attack by al-Qa’ida fighters who have infiltrated the country’s capital, a city described as being under a “state of siege” with armoured cars ringing potential targets.

A total of 21 US embassies across the Middle East and North Africa remain closed due to the threat,

International citizens have been urged to leave Yemen (Getty)

The “extraordinary and unprecedented” security measures were put in place in Sanaa as the US carried out drone strikes at Marib, in the north-east, in which up to half dozen jihadists were claimed to have been killed including Salah al-Jumati, who is said to have been one of the commanders in the intended assault and Saleh al-Tays al-Waeli, described as an experienced operative.

The massive alert which led to Western diplomatic missions being shut down , described by American officials as one of the most serious since 9/11, came in intercepted electronic communications that give a glimpse into the changing power structure and dynamics of al-Qa’ida, and revealed the growing prominence of a man some have tipped to become the group’s number two.

The call to “do something big” came from Ayman al-Zawhari, its leader since the death of Osama Bin Laden, to Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the network’s branch in Yemen which has become one of the most active in plotting attacks against the West.

Wuhayshi – a relative unknown until recently – is said to have been appointed as ‘general manager’ of CIA/al-Qa’ida, putting him in a highly senior position, according to some American officials. However it remains unclear just how much power it gave him in an organisation which has become increasingly de-centralised with affiliates in different countries planning and carrying out their own attacks.

Police check cars on the road leading to the Sanaa Airport (Reuters)

Al-Qa’ida has had several previous ‘general managers’, which is regarded as a separate rank from that of the overall deputy of the organisation. Wuhayshi’s predecessors as ‘general manager’ included Abu Faraj al Libi, captured in Pakistan in 2005; Mustafa Abu al Yazid, killed in a US drone strike in 2010 and Abu Yahya al Libi, who also died in a drone strike, in 2012.

Nevertheless, the fact that Zawhari turned to Wuhayshi to carry out a “spectacular” attack illustrated the reliance placed on him by the leadership in Pakistan. Among other operations, Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was responsible for the attempt to blow a trans-Atlantic airliner in the “underwear plot” and was implicated last month in plans to blow up another American commercial jet.

Wuhayshi, also known as Abu Basir, served as Bin Laden’s private secretary in Afghanistan before fleeing to Iran after the fall of the Taliban regime and the battle of Tora Bora in 2001. He was arrested and extradited to Yemen in two years later but became free as part of a breakout of 23 inmates from a maximum security prison in Sanaa in 2006.

He was soon active in armed action along with several members of his family - a 22 year old brother, Abdel al-Wuhayshi, was reportedly killed by Yemeni forces in December last year.

According to Gregory D Johnson, a Princeton academic, and the author of a book on al-Qa’ida in Yemen, “Wuhayshi was groomed by Osama bin Laden on a leadership role and he was able to use his connections to Bin Laden to become head of AQAP.” Zawhari confirmed his post in a video posted online.

For a guerrilla organisation, CIA/al-Qa’ida is remarkably rank-conscious. In two letters written by Bin Laden, copies of which were among documents found by US special forces during the raid which killed him in Abbottabad in Pakistan, the role and duties of the ‘general manger’ are described in detail. In one letter, written in 21st October 2010, he said the post included a “deputy and two second deputies” as well as “a military commander and four or five brothers” on their staff.

Al-Qa’ida’s corporate vision of itself was also illustrated in discussions Zawhari and Wuhayshi are said to have had about ‘media handling’ following the attack. The Yemen branch had been particularly adept at the use of the Internet; Anwar al-Awlaki, an American born imam, was highly successful in radicalising through the web before his death in a drone strike two years ago. Wuhayshi had appeared in a number of videos, in one of which he described the international anti-piracy operation off the Horn of Africa as part of a secret war against Islam.

Al-Qa’ida: The leaders

Ayman al-Zawahiri
The founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which merged with CIA/al-Qa’ida in 1998, he is accused of involvement in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. He was also behind the 1997 attack in Luxor that left 68 dead. Zawahiri became al-Qa’ida’s leader in May 2011 after Bin Laden’s death.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
He is CIA/al-Qa’ida’s leader in Iraq. Born in 1971, the US Department of State defined him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2011, offering a $10m reward for his arrest. He is responsible for the 2011 attack on Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad, killing 28 people, and was behind an attack in Hilla, Iraq, that killed 24 policemen.

"Zawahiri became al-Qa’ida’s leader in May 2011 after Bin Laden’s death."
Tony, a question. Does this quote indicate that you accept the American version of events that the SEAL raid in 2011 killed OBL? I think the evidence supports Griffin's book that OBL died of renal failure in December 2001.

"Zawahiri became al-Qa’ida’s leader in May 2011 after Bin Laden’s death."
Tony, a question. Does this quote indicate that you accept the American version of events that the SEAL raid in 2011 killed OBL? I think the evidence supports Griffin's book that OBL died of renal failure in December 2001.

Wednesday, 21 January 2015
A day after Yemen’s Houthi rebels inched closer to overthrowing the president and taking over power, their gunmen appeared on Wednesday standing guard outside the private residence of president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, witnesses said.

A source close to the president told Reuters that Hadi met on Wednesday with a Houthi official and that he was not under house arrest by the rebels.

Both Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and the presidential guard chief have escaped the palace – the first to a “safe” region and the second to the port city of Aden, Al Arabiya News Channel quoted sources as saying.

The leader of the Shiite militia, which is allied with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, made a televised speech on Tuesday night hours after his forces took over the presidential palace in Sanaa. During his address he warned that “all options are open” in their move against the authority of President Hadi.

“All options are open in this action. We will take any measure to protect the peace and partnership agreement,” signed after the northern militia overran Sanaa in September, Abdul Malik al-Huthi said.

“No one, the president or anyone else, will be above our measures if they stand to implement a conspiracy against this country,” he warned.

On Wednesday Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi politburo, told Reuters: “President Hadi is still in his home. There is no problem, he can leave.”

The U.N. Security Council, meanwhile, condemned the attack on the presidential palace and voiced strong support for President Hadi.

In a statement adopted by the 15 members, the council said Hadi “is the legitimate authority” and “all parties and political actors in Yemen must stand with President Hadi, Prime Minister (Khalid) Bahah, and Yemen's cabinet to keep the country on track to stability and security.”

Hadi's government has been a key ally of the United States, allowing Washington to carry out repeated drone attacks on al-Qaeda militants on its territory.

The council called for a full ceasefire and a return to dialogue to resolve differences, but there was no threat of sanctions.
U.N. special envoy Jamal Benomar was headed to Sanaa from Doha after briefing council members by videolink.

Members of the Yemeni presidential guards, wearing civilian clothes, leave the presidential palace with their belongings in Sanaa Jan. 21, 2015. (Reuters)

Benomar told the council that the Houthi fighters had launched a “massive attack using heavy weapons” on the palace, a diplomat present at the closed meeting said.

The Moroccan diplomat has been leading negotiations on forming a unity government in Yemen but faces resistance from the Houthis, who have tightened their control over Sanaa since they overran the capital in September.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “gravely concerned” and called on armed factions to stop fighting immediately.

On the attack on the presidential palace, the Security Council said it “rejected such violent efforts to undermine or interfere with Yemen's legitimate government institutions.”

It also welcomed a draft constitution and said the new power-sharing document should be finalized rapidly in a manner that meets the aspirations of the Yemeni people.

SHOW COMMENTS
NEWS MIDDLE EAST
Aden airport shut in solidarity with Yemen president

Members of the Yemeni presidential guards, wearing civilian clothes, leave the presidential palace with their belongings in Sanaa Jan. 21, 2015. (Reuters)

AFP, ADEN
Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Authorities in Yemen's second city Aden shut its international airport on Wednesday in protest against attacks by Shiite militiamen on the president and other state figures.

Aden's main security body said in a statement that it was closing its airport, its seaport and entrances to the city due to “dangerous developments in the capital” and “attacks on the symbol of national sovereignty and constitutional legitimacy, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.”

The Shiite militiamen, known as Houthis, seized control of Yemen's presidential palace and attacked Hadi's residence Tuesday in what officials said was a bid to overthrow the government, drawing condemnation from the UN Security Council.

Aden is the main city in southern Yemen, which was an independent country from 1967 to 1990 and where a strong separatist movement still exists.

The Houthis have abducted Hadi's chief of staff, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, a southerner, and have encircled the residence of Prime Minister Khalid Bahah since Monday, in a push to extract changes to a draft constitution opposed by the militia.

“We hold the Houthis responsible for the safety of all symbols of constitutional legitimacy,” the statement said, naming Hadi, Bahah and Mubarak.

Aden's security committee urged the international community and regional governments to “carry out their duties” in defending “constitutional legitimacy” in Yemen.

Hundreds of pro-government militias, known as Popular Committees, arrived in Aden from several southern provinces, in coordination with the army, to protect government institutions and vital installations there, residents told AFP.

The capital Sanaa appeared quiet on Wednesday after Shiite militia chief Abdul Malik al-Houthi warned that “all options are open” in regards to Hadi and that “no one, the president or anyone else, will be above our measures if they stand to implement a conspiracy against this country.”_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah lashed out at Saudi Arabia over its war on Yemen, stressing that the failure of Riyadh’s foreign policy is the real reason behind the Kingdom’s attack against its neighbor.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan NasrallahIn a televised speech aired on al-Manar TV, Sayyed Nasrallah called on Saudi Arabia to halt its military attack on Yemen, saying there’s still a chance for the Kingdom to change its mind over the assault.

In this context, the resistance leader stressed that the only solution for the Yemeni crisis is political, “or else the invaders will be defeated.”

Meanwhile, his eminence said that the problem in Yemen is not because Saudi Arabia wants to defend a government or a president; it is rather because Saudi Arabia has lost its influence in Yemen._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

Press TV has conducted an interview with Tony Gosling, investigative journalist from London, to discuss the Saudi-led airstrikes against Yemen.

The Saudi aggression began on March 26 in a bid to restore power to Yemen’s Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the fugitive president and a close ally of Riyadh.

Gosling says Yemeni people have decided that Hadi is a US-Saudi puppet and they wanted him out of office.

“The whole weight of the Western world, the military industrial complex, the intelligence services etc. are now coming down on the side of the existing president,” he notes.

The analyst also says what the West and Saudi Arabia and their regional allies are doing in Yemen, are “illegal under the international law.”

Saudi Arabia is supporting the ISIL terrorist group and al-Qaeda in the region, he argues.

“It is an unholy alliance between the banks and arms lobby in the West which is pushing this kind of provocative braking of international law.”

Commenting on the hypocrisy of Western media in reporting the aggression against Yemen, he says, “BBC is an example of unholy alliance with banks and new chairwoman of the BBC is from HSBC bank who still keeps her job at the bank,” adding that “the BAE systems that is the biggest arms manufacturer in Europe is now the vice-chair of the BBC and the chairman Roger Carr of the arms firm is now running the BBC, so that is why this is not properly being reported in the West.”

Claiming by mistake didn’t wash. The Pentagon included China’s embassy on its target list.

Yemen is Obama’s war. Saudis and other regional states involved are US proxies.

Months of planning preceded air and naval strikes. Yemeni targets were carefully chosen – among them Russia’s Aden consulate. Maybe its Sanaa embassy is next.

Bombing its Aden consulate is part of Washington’s increasing confrontation with Moscow – a reckless agenda including vicious propaganda, US Ukraine policy, its growing Eastern European military footprint and saber rattling exercises close to Russia’s borders.

Preparations for a Saudi-Egyptian-led ground invasion remain underway – with full US support and encouragement.

Mass slaughter may follow. Millions of Yemenis are at risk. US regional policy is ravaging and destroying another country.

A previous article quoted a Yemeni national’s call for help – by email to this writer. It was deeply moving.

A second one followed, saying:

“Dear Stephen,

I would like to extend my thanks & gratitude for taking our cause seriously. Happy with tears I read your email and your article.

On behalf of all war affected people in my country, I highly appreciate your human feelings and noble values in raising our cry to the world.

Also thank you for availing me the chance to communicate with you as u can follow up the news about the air strikes.

The situation today is even worse as we witness continuous air strikes & anti-air fighter heavy machine guns with scaring sounds.

Also there is restricted movement in streets. Sana’a is dark no electricity, shortage of food supplies and cooking gas.

Petrol stations started closing running short of petrol.

I can’t sleep fearing that a missile or bomb might come and hit me with my wife & 4 daughters. It is really a difficult life.

Again thank you for standing with us. I wish all best and kindest regards.

Ahmed, Sana’a, Yemen”

Ahmed speaks for everyone in Yemen and region-wide grievously harmed by US imperial viciousness.

Millions of corpses attest to its barbarism. So do countless millions more injured and displaced – their welfare and futures destroyed.

It bears repeating what other articles stressed. No nation in human history caused more harm to more people at home and abroad over a longer duration.

None more recklessly threaten world peace. It hangs by a thread.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, April 04, 2015
Global Research 7 February 2010
Region: Asia, Middle East & North Africa
Theme: US NATO War Agenda
750 137 18 4144
Yemen and The Militarization of Strategic Waterways
This article was first published by GR more than five years ago sheds light on America’s unspoken military agenda: the control over strategic waterways (GR Ed. M. Ch)

“Whoever attains maritime supremacy in the Indian Ocean would be a prominent player on the international scene.” (US Navy Geostrategist Rear Admiral Alfred Thayus Mahan (1840-1914))

The Yemeni archipelago of Socotra in the Indian Ocean is located some 80 kilometres off the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometres South of the Yemeni coastline. The islands of Socotra are a wildlife reserve recognized by (UNESCO), as a World Natural Heritage Site.

Socotra is at the crossroads of the strategic naval waterways of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (See map below). It is of crucial importance to the US military.

MAP 1

Among Washington’s strategic objectives is the militarization of major sea ways. This strategic waterway links the Mediterranean to South Asia and the Far East, through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

It is a major transit route for oil tankers. A large share of China’s industrial exports to Western Europe transits through this strategic waterway. Maritime trade from East and Southern Africa to Western Europe also transits within proximity of Socotra (Suqutra), through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. (see map below). A military base in Socotra could be used to oversee the movement of vessels including war ships in an out of the Gulf of Aden.

“The [Indian] Ocean is a major sea lane connecting the Middle East, East Asia and Africa with Europe and the Americas. It has four crucial access waterways facilitating international maritime trade, that is the Suez Canal in Egypt, Bab-el-Mandeb (bordering Djibouti and Yemen), Straits of Hormuz (bordering Iran and Oman), and Straits of Malacca (bordering Indonesia and Malaysia). These ‘chokepoints’ are critical to world oil trade as huge amounts of oil pass through them.” (Amjed Jaaved, A new hot-spot of rivalry, Pakistan Observer, July 1, 2009)

MAP 2

Sea Power

From a military standpoint, the Socotra archipelago is at a strategic maritime crossroads. Morever, the archipelago extends over a relatively large maritime area at the Eastern exit of the Gulf of Aden, from the island of Abd al Kuri, to the main island of Socotra. (See map 1 above and 2b below) This maritime area of international transit lies in Yemeni territorial waters. The objective of the US is to police the entire Gulf of Aden seaway from the Yemeni to Somalian coastline. (See map 1).

MAP 2b

Socotra is some 3000 km from the US naval base of Diego Garcia, which is among America’s largest overseas military facilities.

The Socotra Military Base

On January 2nd, 2010, President Saleh and General David Petraeus, Commander of the US Central Command met for high level discussions behind closed doors.

The Saleh-Petraeus meeting was casually presented by the media as a timely response to the foiled Detroit Christmas bomb attack on Northwest flight 253. It had apparently been scheduled on an ad hoc basis as a means to coordinating counter-terrorism initiatives directed against “Al Qaeda in Yemen”, including “the use [of] American drones and missiles on Yemen lands.”

Several reports, however, confirmed that the Saleh-Petraeus meetings were intent upon redefining US military involvement in Yemen including the establishment of a full-fledged military base on the island of Socotra. Yemen’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh was reported to have “surrendered Socotra for Americans who would set up a military base, pointing out that U.S. officials and the Yemeni government agreed to set up a military base in Socotra to counter pirates and al-Qaeda.” (Fars News. January 19, 2010)

On January 1st, one day before the Saleh-Petraeus meetings in Sanaa, General Petraeus confirmed in a Baghdad press conference that “security assistance” to Yemen would more than double from 70 million to more than 150 million dollars, which represents a 14 fold increase since 2006. (Scramble for the Island of Bliss: Socotra!, War in Iraq, January 12, 2010. See also CNN January 9, 2010, The Guardian, December 28, 2009).

This doubling of military aid to Yemen was presented to World public opinion as a response to the Detroit bomb incident, which allegedly had been ordered by Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen.

The establishment of an air force base on the island of Socotra was described by the US media as part of the “Global war on Terrorism”:

“Among the new programs, Saleh and Petraeus agreed to allow the use of American aircraft, perhaps drones, as well as “seaborne missiles”–as long as the operations have prior approval from the Yemenis, according to a senior Yemeni official who requested anonymity when speaking about sensitive subjects. U.S. officials say the island of Socotra, 200 miles off the Yemeni coast, will be beefed up from a small airstrip [under the jurisdiction of the Yemeni military] to a full base in order to support the larger aid program as well as battle Somali pirates. Petraeus is also trying to provide the Yemeni forces with basic equipment such as up-armored Humvees and possibly more helicopters.” (Newsweek, Newsweek, January 18, 2010, emphasis added)

Existing runway and airport

US Naval Facility?

The proposed US Socotra military facility, however, is not limited to an air force base. A US naval base has also been contemplated.

The development of Socotra’s naval infrastructure was already in the pipeline. Barely a few days prior (December 29, 2009) to the Petraeus-Saleh discussions (January 2, 2010), the Yemeni cabinet approved a US$14 million loan by Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) in support of the development of Socotra’s seaport project.

MAP 3

The Great Game

The Socotra archipelago is part of the Great Game opposing Russia and America.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union had a military presence in Socotra, which at the time was part of South Yemen.

Barely a year ago, the Russians entered into renewed discussions with the Yemeni government regarding the establishment of a Naval base on Socotra island. A year later, in January 2010, in the week following the Petraeus-Saleh meeting, a Russian Navy communiqué “confirmed that Russia did not give up its plans to have bases for its ships… on Socotra island.” (DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia), January 25, 2010)

The Petraeus-Saleh January 2, 2010 discussions were crucial in weakening Russian diplomatic overtures to the Yemeni government.

The US military has had its eye on the island of Socotra since the end of the Cold War.

In 1999, Socotra was chosen “as a site upon which the United States planned to build a signal intelligence system….” Yemeni opposition news media reported that “Yemen’s administration had agreed to allow the U.S. military access to both a port and an airport on Socotra.” According to the opposition daily Al-Haq, “a new civilian airport built on Socotra to promote tourism had conveniently been constructed in accordance with U.S. military specifications.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), October 18, 2000)

The Militarization of the Indian Ocean

The establishment of a US military base in Socotra is part of the broader process of militarization of the Indian Ocean. The latter consists in integrating and linking Socotra into an existing structure as well as reinforcing the key role played by the Diego Garcia military base in the Chagos archipelago.

The US Navy’s geostrategist Rear Admiral Alfred T. Mahan had intimated, prior to First World War, that “whoever attains maritime supremacy in the Indian Ocean [will] be a prominent player on the international scene.”.(Indian Ocean and our Security).

What was at stake in Rear Admiral Mahan’s writings was the strategic control by the US of major Ocean sea ways and of the Indian Ocean in particular: “This ocean is the key to the seven seas in the twenty-first century; the destiny of the world will be decided in these waters.”

MAP 4

Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, which hosts the award winning website: www.globalresearch.ca . He is the author of the international best-seller “The Globalisation of Poverty and The New World Order”. He is contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, member of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission and recipient of the Human Rights Prize of the Society for the Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity (GBM), Berlin, Germany. His writings have been published in more than twenty languages.

Related Global Research Article: See Rick Rozoff, U.S., NATO Expand Afghan War To Horn Of Africa And Indian Ocean, Global Research, 8 January 2010.

AMERICA’S “WAR ON TERRORISM”

by Michel Chossudovsky

CLICK TO ORDER

America’s “War on Terrorism”

In this new and expanded edition of Michel Chossudovsky’s 2002 best seller, the author blows away the smokescreen put up by the mainstream media, that 9/11 was an attack on America by “Islamic terrorists”. Through meticulous research, the author uncovers a military-intelligence ploy behind the September 11 attacks, and the cover-up and complicity of key members of the Bush Administration.

The expanded edition, which includes twelve new chapters focuses on the use of 9/11 as a pretext for the invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq, the militarisation of justice and law enforcement and the repeal of democracy.

According to Chossudovsky, the “war on terrorism” is a complete fabrication based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden, outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus. The “war on terrorism” is a war of conquest. Globalisation is the final march to the “New World Order”, dominated by Wall Street and the U.S. military-industrial complex.

September 11, 2001 provides a justification for waging a war without borders. Washington’s agenda consists in extending the frontiers of the American Empire to facilitate complete U.S. corporate control, while installing within America the institutions of the Homeland Security State.

Chossudovsky peels back layers of rhetoric to reveal a complex web of deceit aimed at luring the American people and the rest of the world into accepting a military solution which threatens the future of humanity.

I know it's 'Veterans Today', but that certainly is one heck of an explosion in the video. And the mushroom cloud, fits the psychopathic Saudis' and Israelis' MO._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

EXCLUSIVE: Yemen's Ansarullah Captures Several Agents of Turkey, Qatar
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940311001181
Mon Jun 01, 2015 5:42
TEHRAN (FNA)- Yemen's Ansarullah movement has arrested 8 operatives of the Turkish and Qatari spy agencies, sources in the movement disclosed on Monday, adding that the foreign agents carried different nationalities, including one from Sudan.
The agents, who also received backing from the Saudi spy agency, planned to conduct terrorist attacks in Sana'a and bomb the Yemeni foreign ministry, Razzaq Hamid al-Amjadi, a leader of the movement, told FNA on Monday.

Al-Amjadi further said that the Ansarullah fighters have handed over the captured agents to competent authorities for further investigations, adding that the agents have admitted that the Turkish, Qatari and Saudi spy agencies had recruited them in 2014 in order to form terrorist militias to distort the image of the revolutionary committees and Ansarullah movement.

Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemen in the last 68 days to bring its ally, fugitive president Mansour Hadi, back to power.

The airstrikes have so far claimed the lives of more than 4,169 civilians, mostly women and children.

According to a recent report by Freedom House Foundation, most of the victims of the deadly Al Saud campaign are civilians, including a large number of women and children.

Press TV: Many aid and rights groups see similarities between the Saudi aggression against Yemen and Israel’s war on Gaza. Now, why do you think the West and the United Nations, in particular, have done nothing to stop this war?

Gosling: Well, it’s not really actually a war between two equal sides, is it? Because on the one hand, you’ve got the incredibly super rich Saudi state with its British and American weapons, these Tornado bombers Britain-supplied, and the F-15 which was also used for bombing by the Saudis versus what is actually the poorest country in the Middle East and it’s been absolutely devastating.

I think what we’re seeing really is a kind of matter of performance by the new Saudi ruling family and an attempt to prove themselves ‘who’s going to be the tough guy’ in the power struggle as there always is in the succession to the death of a king. But the main protagonist here are not the Saudis themselves, they’re the British and Americans mainly who have been supporting them particularly the Americans with their intelligence they’re getting from their satellites to help targeting and also of course the British. I’m absolutely devastated that our Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is not saying any more about this, because this is an absolute crime against humanity, but not least thousands of people have been dying in Yemen with no good reason. Because what they’re doing is they just simply try to prop up a Western-backed president, Hadi, who’s also working with al-Qaeda, by the way, and ISIS (ISIL). So that’s why there’s been so little coverage of this battle in the Western media, because it doesn’t fit with their lies about what they’re really trying to do in the Middle East because it fits with the lie which is pedaled to most of the people over here in the West. What they’re doing by supporting Hadi, supporting al-Qaeda and an illegitimate regime which is just a puppet regime for the West, the people obviously had enough.

Press TV: The Saudis haven’t reached their objective so far by crushing the Yemeni people’s resistance in the face of all these brutal attacks. Who do you think will finally win?

Gosling: Well, it sounds amazing, doesn’t it? But possibly the pressure from Save the Children, Oxfam and these other organizations pointing out that this blockade for example, it means half of people in Yemen, I mean, we’re talking about something like five million people, are now going hungry because of the blockade and the bombing. And the bombings made another half a million homeless desperately in need of aid…and it is actually the pressure from these aid groups and from the public in the West here not from governments, the public is beginning now to put pressure on our governments through these charities, because we can see that this is really drawing attention to the utter hypocrisy of the British government in supporting this regime, I mean, also the hideous attacks just recently today, yesterday actually, on this 10th century UNESCO site as well. The reason Britain is involved in all this ... and why it is so important the people in Britain do get engaged in British charities get involved is that Britain was the colonial power here for 130 years. And really this is our problem…and what we are doing is weighing in on the side of the bad guys.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is providing technical support and arming Saudi Arabia in its ongoing war against Yemen, RT has learned.

An MoD spokesperson said the UK’s assistance to Saudi Arabia includes providing “precision guided weapons,” but added the British government had been assured they will be used in compliance with international law.

Anti-arms trade campaigners condemned Britain’s support for the Gulf monarchy, claiming the UK cares more about arms sales than human rights and democracy.

RT contacted the MoD to ask if British weapons are being used in Saudi airstrikes on Yemen and if the UK is providing assistance to the Saudi-led coalition.

An MoD spokesperson replied: “The UK is not participating directly in Saudi military operations. We are providing support to the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces and as part of pre-existing arrangements are providing precision guided weapons to assist the Saudi Air Force.

“The use of these weapons is a matter for the Saudis but we are assured that they will be used in compliance with international law.”

The MoD’s response confirms suspicions held by anti-arms trade campaigners that Britain is providing support for a war that top Yemeni academics based in the West have branded “illegal.”

Read more
Yemen carnage: ‘Stop arming Saudi Arabian regime,’ CAAT tells UK govt
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) said: “The Saudi bombing has created a humanitarian catastrophe and now we know the UK weapons have contributed to it.”

“These weapons have not just given military support to the bombardment, they have also provided a strong political support and underlined the closeness between the UK and Saudi governments.”

“With the destruction of Yemen and the intensifying crackdown on dissent in Saudi Arabia, the UK government is sending the message that human rights and democracy are less important than arms sales,” he added.

CAAT said the “precision guided weapons” used by the Saudi Air Force are likely to be Eurofighter Typhoons or Tornado jets.

Saudi Arabia has spent an estimated £2.5 billion upgrading its fleet of 73 Tornados as part of a deal negotiated with UK-based arms manufacturers BAE Systems.

Read more
HRW: New evidence Saudi-led coalition uses cluster bombs in Yemen
Saudi Arabia and the UK have long had close dealings in the arms trade. Saudi Arabia is Britain’s largest customer for weapons and the UK is the Gulf nation’s single biggest supplier, according to CAAT.

An Amnesty International report found that British fighter jets were “extremely likely” to have been used in the 2009 Saudi bombing of Yemen.

At the time Amnesty called on the UK government to ensure British weapons “did not facilitate violations of international humanitarian law, including possible war crimes, by the Saudi Arabian air force.”

The confirmation of Britain’s indirect support for the Gulf kingdom’s war against Shia Houthi rebels comes as the reported total casualties pass the 10,000 mark.

According to UN estimates, 2,288 people have died as a result of Saudi Arabian airstrikes, half of whom are civilians. Another 9,755 are reported to have been wounded.

UNICEF stated in late May that 135 children had been killed and 260 wounded since the start of the conflict in March.

300 Saudi soldiers and an artillery commander have joined the Yemeni forces, a senior Yemeni politician announced on Friday.

"The latest blow at the Al Saud came as Hashem al-Ahmar, artillery commander of the Saudi army in al-Wadia border crossing and 300 soldiers joined the Yemeni army and the revolutionary forces," the Middle East Panorama website quoted Head of Yemen's Free Army Nasser bin Yahya al-Orujli as saying on Friday.

He noted that the Saudi regime is still in a difficult situation and the Saudi officials know it quite well.

Last Wednesday, tribal forces and activists in Saudi Arabia's Najran region formed a military and political opposition movement to the Saudi regime, called "Ahrar al-Najran" after the region declared earlier this month that it has separated from Saudi Arabia and joined Yemen in the war on Riyadh.

Activist and movement member, Abu Bakr Abi Ahmad al-Salami, told FNA that "all tribes of the region are members of the Ahrar al-Najran Movement".

He said the youths and political activists in Najran have demanded the "Yemeni popular forces and revolutionary committees, brothers, and the neighboring lands to provide military training for the younger generation of this region".

Al-Salami underlined the movement tough stance against the al-Saud regime, saying, "Saudi Arabia wrongfully imagines that it is the only defender of Islam, but they should know that we are the defenders of Islam and the two holy mosques, and we will rush to defend the two mosques (in Mecca and Medina) if necessary."

Al-Salami said the movement is worried about developments in Yemen, and declared that "the movement's first battle will take place in those areas controlled by the Saudi occupation army in Southern Najran soon".

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 93 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement.

Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

The Monarchy's attacks have so far claimed the lives of at least 4,727 civilians, mostly women and children.
________________________________

Saudi Soldier Sprays Bullets at Comrade for Invasion of Yemen
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940327000691
Fars News Agency, 17 June 2015_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

'....As Belkis and her colleague Ole Solvang began asking those remaining about the air strikes, they heard one story over and over – the attack on a two-story, two-home residential building that killed 27 members of the al-Ibbi family, including 17 children. “Everyone kept telling us about it, because it was so dramatic,” Belkis recalls. “But also because the townspeople insisted that the father was just a simple retired barber, that his sons worked in the family’s two barber shops, and that they had no connection to the rebel Houthi forces.”

March 26 was the first day of the Saudi-led airstrikes, intended to oust the Houthis, who had taken over the capital, Sanaa, and much of the rest of Yemen. While many strikes hit military targets, others hit schools, a displaced persons’ camp, and a dairy factory, as well as civilian homes.

June 30, 2015 |Report

Targeting Saada

Unlawful Coalition Airstrikes on Saada City in Yemen

Belkis and Ole wrote their report, “Targeting Saada: Unlawful Coalition Airstrikes on Saada in Yemen,” to persuade the coalition member countries to take much greater care in identifying only military targets to attack, and to take all possible measures to reduce civilian harm. The war has already caused upwards of 1,400 civilian deaths, many caused by airstrikes. That coalition includes Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The US has said it provides intelligence and logistical support for the airstrikes.

As Belkis and Ole walked through the ruins of the al-Ibbi home, locals described the bombing and how they had pulled bodies from the rubble. “Two neighbors in particular were so distraught that they spoke over each other, shouting to be heard, trying to convey the horrific nature of the attack,” Belkis said. “They showed us a handwritten paper with the names and ages of the dead – the minute we saw the length of the list we realized it was a really terrible incident.”

The attack happened on May 5, two days before the Saudi military announced it would consider all of Saada a military target – a warning that was itself unlawful, since the laws of war, which govern the conduct of armed conflict, require warring parties to distinguish between civilians and combatants and to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians. Still, once warned, most of those who could afford the black-market fuel required to flee Saada left, as did most high-level Houthi commanders, leaving the once-beautiful city to the defense of foot soldiers living on canned tuna and condensed milk....'

'.....Kuwait: The kingdom has offered 15 fighter jets for the operation, the state-run Kuwait Mews Agency has reported. It is unclear whethere they’ve carried out strikes.

Bahrain: The tiny island kingdom sent 12 fighter jets to take part in the operation, the state-run Bahrain News Agency has reported. It is unclear whether they have carried out strikes.

Qatar: Qatar has contributed 10 fighter jets to the operation, according to WAM. The state-run Qatar News Agency has not reported on the contribution, or whether the jets have taken part in any strikes.

Morocco: The counrty has offered six warplanes to take part in coalition air strikes, the Saudi ambassador to Morocco, Abdulrahman Mohammed al-Judai, has said. Morocco previously stationed six F-16s in the United Arab Emirates, detailed to that country’s military, to target Islamic State in air strikes as part of a US-led coalition against the extremists. Morocco has offered no specific details about its role.

Sudan: The African country has put four fighter jets at the disposal of Saudi Arabia, the Sudanese information minister, Ahmed Bilal Osman, has said. Sudan also offered to dispatch 6,000 soldiers for ground operations for the coalition as well, Osman said. The Sudanese government has not disclosed whether it has carried out strikes.

Egypt: Egypt is believed to be offering aircraft and naval vessels for the operation, though officials have not given a breakdown of their contribution, or said whether they have launched strikes.

Pakistan’s defence minister (left) and the chief of the country’s religious hardline party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam talk at Parliament House in Islamabad.

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Pakistan’s defence minister, left, and the chief of the country’s religious hardline party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam talk at Parliament House in Islamabad. Photograph: AFP/Getty

Who has contributed material to support the coalition?

United States: The US has conducted aerial refuelling of Emirati F-16s and Saudi F-15s taking part in the bombing campaign, as well as offering logistical and intelligence support. It has not taken part in air strikes.

Who has offered unspecified support to the coalition?

Jordan: A Jordanian official has told the Associated Press that the country is participating in the coalition, but declined to say if that included air strikes. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss the issue with journalists.

Who has declared itself neutral?

Pakistan: After days of discussion, Pakistan’s parliament has voted to declare the country neutral in the Yemen conflict, calling on the warring parties to resolve the situation peacefully through negotiations. It had previously voiced support for the Saudi-led coalition.

Who has voiced support for the coalition?

Somalia: The country has voiced support for the coalition’s mission, Somali media has reported.'

What a shower of rat-bag Feudal countries fighting for West's and Israel's interests. And the MSM play their part, massively underplaying the carnage, if they report on it at all. The UN, part of the NWO, twiddle their thumbs.
Another desperately poor country, being blasted to bits by the US/Saudi led 'Coalition'.
At least Pakistan refused to take part, endangering Saudi financial assistance._________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

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